HALFMOON >> Andrew Maider is a professional yo-yo player. If you don’t believe him, he has his own sports card to prove it.

The Albany Academy junior placed 17th in the world championship held earlier this month in Prague, Czech Republic. He was one of three Americans to place in the top 20. The top finisher Gentry Stein, another American, is a friend of Maider’s.

Interest in yo-yos may have fallen out of favor in the U.S., but in Europe it remains very strong. The tricks and stage moves coupled with

music chosen by each contestant, much of it electronic, gives the competition the feel of a late night rave. The sport has come a long way from tricks like walking the dog and around the world.

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Maider’s sports card gives a glimpse of what today’s players can do with modern yo-yos. The photograph shows him in a crouched position with leather jacket and cuffed jeans jumping in the air with a thrown yo-yo zipping between his feet, its string extended taught from his hand. The card is a perk, compliments of his sponsor Caribou Lodge Yo-Yo Works, a Canadian company. Not every yo-yo professional has one.

Maider is the son of Richard and Susan Maider of Halfmoon. He has one brother, Troy, who takes no interest in yo-yos.

Like any sports star Maider has fans. It was the young fans who mobbed him in Prague clamoring for his autograph that surprised his mother the most.

“As a mom, seeing my son signing autographs was humbling,” Susan Maider said. “I was proud, but yet it was so funny because yo-yoing is a big deal there.”

In an interview at his home last week, Maider described how he came to take up the sport, why he kept at it and his early journeys to competitions as a young kid with big ambitions and wide eyes.

“My fifth grade teacher got the entire class to try yo-yos as a sort of club,” he said. “Most of them stopped doing it pretty quickly but two friends and I kept at it for a while. Eventually they stopped and so did I.”

Then, a year later as a 12-year-old, while surfing the Internet, he saw someone who was really good at yo-yoing. That video got him back into the game.

“I didn’t know you could do some of the things the guy was dong,” Maider said. “I spent that whole summer getting better. I had a yo-yo in my hand the whole time.”

From there it was practice, practice and more practice and then on to competitions to see just how good the experts really were. In 2011, at

13, Maider went to his first contest, the Northeast Regionals in North Hampton, Mass. He placed fourth, surprising himself.

“I just had a perfect run,” he said. “My place in the contest was much higher than my ability at the time. I really didn’t deserve it for how

good I was at the time. I just hit everything perfect.”

From there it was on to more competitions, including the World Championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013. At the time they were being held in Orlando, Fla. Before this year, anyone who had the courage could just show up at the World Championship and enter the preliminaries. There was no requirement that a contestant have won or placed in a regional or national competition.

The World Championships have a variety of divisions. There are string tricks like Maider’s, double yo-yo string tricks, off string yo-yoing, counterweight yo-yoing and spin top. Division 1A string tricks like Maider’s are considered the professional’s professional.

Because the number of walk-in entries was increasing each year the 2014 World Championship instituted a Wild Card Round to qualify for preliminaries. Each contestant was given 30 seconds to perform.

Despite his earlier competitive successes Maider went to Prague as a Wild Card entrant with an eye on finally making the finals. He had to get through the Wild Card Round or the trip would be a very short one.

“If he didn’t make it to the preliminaries it would have been a very expensive vacation,” Susan Maider said.

When he finished sixth out of hundreds of contestants from 30 countries word began to spread around Prague about his skill.

From the Wild Card round it was on to the preliminaries where he finished in 12 place and the semi-finals where he again placed 12th.

The final round in the string tricks division is the competition’s major showcase. It is where the cream of the professional yo-yoers display their skills. Each contestant is accompanied on stage by a model ready for the red carpet to the cheers of a packed theater three levels high. The contestants’ display their skill with their tricks for three minutes with a screaming crowd cheering them on, accompanied by pounding music. The judge’s positions are just beyond the stage edge.

A video of the finals shows Maider in his sponsor’s black T-shirt and dark pants with his hands moving the string and yo-yo quickly from trick to trick at chest height and near his head while the music plays and the enthusiastic crowd acknowledges his skill.

The championships are judged on technique, cleanliness, rareness and originality of tricks, and the performance itself.

“I do everything from choosing the music, editing the music, and the choreography,” Maider said. “Then I practice the routine over and over again.”

For his finals he chose the tune “One Eyed Dip” by Bingo Players.

Next up for Maider is the start of school at Albany Academy and the U.S. National Championships in October where he has a pass to the final round.

Yo-yoing is not Maider’s only sport. He is a member of the track and diving teams at Albany Academy. He chose them because their seasons do not conflict with his life as a professional yo-yoer. During summer Maider practices two to three hours a day. When school’s in session, practice is reduced to an hour-and-a-half.

“I like the creativity aspect and the competition,” he said. “Other sports lack creativity.”

“I think it’s a skill set,” Susan Maider said. “And it’s a great community (of people). I’ve seen him mature right there, up on the stage.”